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Stolen Hearts: A Grace Street Mystery (Grace Street Mysteries #1)
by Jane Tesh2018 ALA Book Club October Pick, Things that Go Bump: Paranormal MysteriesDavid Randall's perfect family life came derailed when his little daughter Lindsey died in a car crash. Thrown out by his second wife and wanting to leave a dead-end detective agency to start his own, he reluctantly accepts his psychic friend Camden's invitation to stay in Camden's boarding house in Parkland, North Carolina.Meanwhile, working the case of the murder of Albert Bennett, Randall's only clue is a notebook filled with odd musical notation. When another client, Melanie Gentry, hires him to prove her great-grandmother was murdered by her lover, composer John Burrows Ashford, over authorship of "Patchwork Melodies," Randall sets out to find a connection to Bennett's murder, as well as to the murder of a Smithsonian director, who was preparing a new PBS documentary on early American music.Randall's investigations lead him to another notebook, where he finds not only "Two Hearts Singing," Ashford's most famous song, but a valuable early copy of Stephen Foster's "Oh! Susanna," hidden in the cover. But things become more complicated when Ashford's spirit parks itself in Cam...and refuses to leave until Randall proves Ashford's innocence.
Blood for Wine (Cal Claxton Mysteries #5)
by Warren C EasleyNero Wolfe Award Finalist for 2018"Oenophiles and aspiring vintners will enjoy the wine lore in this well-wrought tale of love and betrayal." —Publishers WeeklyCal Claxton's old farmhouse sits high in Oregon's Red Hills, home of scores of wineries and some of the most coveted acreage for growing the pinot noir grape in the world. Former Los Angeles prosecutor Cal settled in this haven to reboot his life as a widower, growing a small practice that includes some pro bono work in nearby Portland. Life is good, filled with food, wine, and friends. But this beautiful area is not the idyllic haven it appears to be.When Cal's neighbor, Jim Kavanaugh, the owner and gifted vintner of an up-and-coming winery, is accused of murdering his wife, his freedom—and the grape harvest—is suddenly in jeopardy along with his reputation, and his business begins to slide. No gentleman farmer, this puts the rugged winemaker's property, his only financial asset, in play. When a blackmail plot is hatched against the owner of adjacent land, it begins to look like a brutal game of real-life Monopoly is underway.Cal agrees to defend Jim, a good friend, which pulls him reluctantly into the blackmail plot. Emotions are running high over Lori Kavanaugh's bloody death. There is no shortage of suspects. There may be more than the one game in play. And defending Jim might well make Cal the next target of a vicious, cunning killer.
The Rose in the Wheel: A Regency Mystery (Regency Mysteries #0)
by S. K. RizzoloRegency London knows Constance Tyrone as the conspicuously celibate founder of the St. Catherine Society, dedicated to helping poor women. One wet November evening a carriage mows down Constance outside her office.Curiously, while her corpse's one foot is bare, the other is shod in a clean satin slipper despite the muddy road. Why was a gentlewoman abroad in the night? And if she died under the wheel, whose hands bruised her neck and stole her monogrammed crucifix? Dismissing the idea of an accident, Bow Street Runner John Chase forms an unlikely alliance with Penelope Wolfe, wife of the chief suspect. A young mother paying the price for an imprudent marriage, Penelope is eager to clear her husband Jeremy, a feckless portrait painter whose salacious drawings of the victim suggest an erotic interest.Chase's first task is to learn the identity of the mysterious benefactor who goes bail for Wolfe while Penelope traces the victim's last movements. Barrister Edward Buckler, intrigued, shakes off his habitual lethargy and joins their investigation. As horrifying murders on the Ratcliffe Highway claim all London's attention, the trio discovers that it won't be easy to unravel the enigma of Constance Tyrone.
Crimson Snow: Winter Mysteries (British Library Crime Classics #0)
by Martin Edwards EditorMystery crime fiction written in the Golden Age of Murder"Edwards's second winter-themed anthology in the British Library Crime Classics series is a standout. As in the most successful of such volumes, the editor's expertise results in a selection of unusual suspects, expanding readers' knowledge." —Publishers Weekly STARRED reviewCrimson Snow brings together a dozen vintage crime stories set in winter. Welcome to a world of Father Christmases behaving oddly, a famous fictional detective in a Yuletide drama, mysterious tracks in the snow, and some very unpleasant carol singers. There's no denying that the supposed season of goodwill is a time of year that lends itself to detective fiction.On a cold night, it's tempting to curl up by the fireside with a good mystery. And more than that, claustrophobic house parties, with people cooped up with long-estranged relatives, can provide plenty of motives for murder.Including forgotten stories by major writers such as Margery Allingham, as well as classic tales by less familiar crime novelists, each story in this selection is introduced by the leading expert on classic crime, Martin Edwards. The resulting volume is an entertaining and atmospheric compendium of wintry delights.
Twice Buried (Posadas County Mysteries #3)
by Steven F. HavillIf history is right, a 26 year-old beauty named Winnie Ruth Judd murdered her two best girlfriends one hot Phoenix night in 1931. Then she hacked up their bodies, stuffed the pieces into a trunk, and took them by train to Los Angeles as her baggage.If history is right, she was sentenced to die but "cheated the gallows" by acting insane. She spent nearly 40 years in Arizona's insane asylum-flummoxing officials by escaping six times.If history is right, she only got her freedom at age 66-after serving more time than any other convicted murderer in the history of the nation—because Arizona was finally tired of punishing her.But if history is wrong, Winnie Ruth Judd's life was squandered in a horrible miscarriage of justice.Award-winning journalist Jana Bommersbach reinvestigates the twisted, bizarre murder case that has captivated the nation for decades. She not only uncovers evidence long hidden, but gets Winnie Ruth Judd to break her life-long silence and finally speak.In telling the story of this American crime legend, Bommersbach also tells the story of Phoenix, Arizona—a backwater town that would become a major American city—and the story of a unique moment in American history filled with social taboos.But most of all, she tells the story of a woman with the courage to survive.
A Pinchbeck Bride: A Mark Winslow Mystery (large Print 16pt) (Mark Winslow Series #0)
by Stephen AnableIrreverent Chicago racetrack publicist Jack Doyle, former advertising man and amateur boxer, accepts a new job as a thoroughbred jockey's agent. His client is a seventeen-year-old riding phenom from Ireland named Mickey Sheehan. Mickey and Jack prove to be an effective team until someone begins secretly doping the horses, affecting race results.In his quest to identify the culprit, Doyle is aided by his old friend Moe Kellman, furrier-to-the-Mob; trainer Ralph Tenuta, himself the target of a blackmailer; and young veterinarian Ingrid McGuire, a talented horse communicator. The action moves from Chicago's Heartland Downs to New York's famed Saratoga Race Course, even stepping aboard Mob capo Fifi Bonadio's lavish yacht in Chicago's Belmont Harbor. Will Jack's persistent push for answers get him killed?
Comes a Time for Burning: A Dr. Thomas Parks Mystery (Dr. Thomas Parks Series #0)
by Steven F. Havill1892: Busy stitching and bandaging lumberjacks' injuries, young Dr. Thomas Parks has no idea that his worst enemy is lurking in the sleepy village of Port McKinney.When one of the working girls at the Clarissa Hotel is brought to the Clinic desperately ill, Thomas' newly arrived associate wastes no time in making the diagnosis - Asian Cholera has somehow found this backwater near Puget Sound. The cholera strikes viciously and kills in days, sometimes even hours. It soon becomes apparent that Thomas and his clinic have neither the supplies nor the means to provide effective treatment for the outbreak, and in hours, they are swamped.Afraid for the safety of his wife and daughter and all those close to him, Thomas is still driven by professional curiosity about the contagion's origins, especially when it appears that one of his own nurses is in some way responsible. Before he can mount a truly effective defense, the battle spreads, threatening the very life of the village...
Nantucket Sawbuck: A Henry Kennis Mystery (Henry Kennis Nantucket Mysteries #1)
by Steven Axelrod"Axelrod's promising debut introduces a protagonist who will remind readers of Robert Parker's sleuths. The two-part story structure ("Premeditation"and "Post Mortem") also gives readers an Ellery Queen type of opportunity to "help solve" the crime." —Library JournalWhen Nantucket homeowner Preston Lomax is killed, everyone on the island could be a suspect. Lomax lived large, owed money, and the word was spreading he was planning to stiff them all and disappear. Chief of Police Henry Kennis, a newcomer from California, investigates with help from the State Police. Together they solve the case—or so it appears. But Kennis can't shake the feeling that they've missed something.Kennis soon discovers scandals, intrigues and an eclectic cast of local characters—oddball journalists, surfing carpenters, drug dealers, wealthy homeowners and their slacker children. Kennis uncovers a truth that lies somewhere between the bad blood and the good neighbors.
Some Clouds: A Héctor Belascoarán Shayne Detective Novel (Hector Belascoaran Shayne Detective Novels #0)
by Paco Ignacio Taibo IIMexico City detective Héctor Belascoarán Shayne is summoned home from vacation by his sister, whose childhood friend Anita has been raped and nearly killed by unknown assailants. Héctor discovers that Anita, recently married into the wealthy Costa family, has just seen her husband and his two brothers systematically murdered. Now, if she can stay alive long enough to receive it, Anita stands in line to receive a legacy of some 200 million pesos.During his investigation, Héctor trades stories with a novelist who is writing a crime novel based upon the recent murder of fourteen narcotraficantes and has traced the crime directly back to Judicial Police Commander Saavedra. How can a detective operate in a society in which the social and political institutions designed to protect the people are hopelessly corrupt?
Away With the Fairies (Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries #11)
by Kerry GreenwoodMiss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, now streaming on Netflix, starring Essie Davis as the honourable Phryne FisherIt's 1928 in Melbourne and Phryne is asked to investigate the puzzling death of a famous author and illustrator of fairy stories. To do so, Phryne takes a job within the women's magazine that employed the victim and finds herself enmeshed in her colleagues' deceptions.But while Phryne is learning the ins and outs of magazine publishing first hand, her personal life is thrown into chaos. Impatient for her lover Lin Chung's imminent return from a silk-buying expedition to China, she instead receives an unusual summons from Lin Chung's family, followed by a series of mysterious assaults and warnings.
Desert Cut: A Lena Jones Mystery (Lena Jones Series #5)
by Betty WebbIn a culture obsessed with celebrity, baby Muffin's death is big news. Crib death—or something more sinister? Everyone wants to know, including the police. Whatever the truth, the bereaved parents—celebrity couple Jodee and Chazz—live in curate Callie Anson's parish. And despite the disapproval of her vicar and his wife, Callie becomes involved with funeral arrangements.It's a high-profile case, all right. Detective Inspector Neville Stewart is even recalled from his honeymoon to investigate—with disastrous personal results. And journalist Lilith Noone's professional future is on the line as she is sucked more deeply into her own flirtations with celebrity culture.But for police family liaison officer Mark Lombardi, the death of baby Muffin is eclipsed by another death much closer to home. He soon finds himself in an impossible position, torn between his loyalty to his family and his growing love for Callie.Deep Waters takes an unflinching look at our ambivalent relationship with the celebrities we make...and discard.
Roman Games: Roman Games, One For Sorrow, Wine Of Violence (Plinius Secundus Series #2)
by Bruce Macbain"Macbain's debut novel convincingly re-creates everyday life in ancient Rome, weaving real and fictional characters with aplomb."—Kirkus ReviewsWhen the body of Sextus Verpa, a notorious senatorial informer and libertine, is found stabbed to death in his bedroom, suspicion falls on his household slaves—a potential death sentence for all.The cruel emperor, Domitian, orders Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus—known to history as Pliny the Younger—to investigate. However, the Ludi Romani (the Roman Games) have just begun, and for the next fifteen days the law courts are in recess. If Pliny can't identify the murderer in that time, Verpa's entire slave household will be burned alive in the arena.Pliny teams up with Martial, a starving author of bawdy verses and hanger-on to the city's glitterati, to unravel a plot that involves Jewish and Christian "atheists," exotic Egyptian cultists, Rome's own pantheon of gods, and a missing horoscope that forecasts the emperor's death....
The Donkey-Vous: A Mamur Zapt Mystery (Mamur Zapt Mysteries #3)
by Michael PearcePru Marlowe isn't your ordinary animal psychic. A tough girl on the run from her own gift, Pru left the big city to return to her picturesque Berkshires hometown looking for a little peace. Too bad that her training as an animal behaviorist got her mixed up with Lily, a rescue dog, and Charles, her person. Now Charles is dead, and Lily looks good for it. After all, Lily is a pitbull, a fighting-ring dropout, and way too traumatized to give Pru a clear picture of what she has witnessed. But Pru knows something about bad girls trying to clean up, and, with a sense of justice strong enough to overcome her dislike of human society, she takes the case. Listening to the animals, Pru picks up clues—and learns there are secrets in the pretty little town that make murder look simple. Unable to tell anybody about her psychic abilities, uncertain at times about her own sanity, Pru comes to realize that if she clears Lily, she'll likely become the prime suspect—or the next victim. While the only creature she can totally trust is her crotchety tabby Wallis, Pru's got to uncover the real killer—and find a way to live with her gift—before the real beasts in the town savage her and those she has come to love. The first in the Pru Marlowe "pet noir" series.
Resorting to Murder: Holiday Mysteries (British Library Crime Classics #0)
by Editor Martin EdwardsMystery crime fiction written in the Golden Age of Murder"This volume in Poisoned Pen's British Library Crime Classics series is ideal summer vacation reading." —Publishers WeeklyHolidays offer us the luxury of getting away from it all. So, in a different way, do detective stories. This collection of vintage mysteries combines both those pleasures. From a golf course at the English seaside to a pension in Paris, and from a Swiss mountain resort to the cliffs of Normandy, this new selection shows the enjoyable and unexpected ways in which crime writers have used summer holidays as a theme.These fourteen stories range widely across the golden age of British crime fiction. Stellar names from the past are well represented—Arthur Conan Doyle and G. K. Chesterton, for instance—with classic stories that have won acclaim over the decades. The collection also uncovers a wide range of hidden gems: Anthony Berkeley—whose brilliance with plot had even Agatha Christie in raptures—is represented by a story so (undeservedly) obscure that even the British Library does not own a copy. The stories by Phyllis Bentley and Helen Simpson are almost equally rare, despite the success which both writers achieved, while those by H. C. Bailey, Leo Bruce and the little-known Gerald Findler have seldom been reprinted.Each story is introduced by the editor, Martin Edwards, who sheds light on the authors' lives and the background to their writing.
Hornswoggled (Alafair Tucker Mysteries #2)
by Donis Casey"Donis Casey's voice flows like tea syrup, transporting you effortlessly to the Oklahoma frontier....A welcome invite to your great-grandmother's front porch swing." —JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING, New York Times bestselling authorIt's spring 1913, and love is in bloom for Alice Tucker. Walter Kelley is handsome, popular, and wealthy. But Alice's mother, Alafair, sees that Walter has a weakness for the ladies—and they for him. Only a few months earlier, Walter's late wife Louise had been stabbed in the heart and her body disposed of in Cane Creek. The murderer was never caught.The sheriff cleared Walter of the deed—he had an alibi—but Alafair is not so sure that he wasn't involved in some way. Something literally doesn't smell right.With the help of her feisty mother-in-law, Sally McBride, Alafair sets out to prove to the headstrong Alice that Walter is not the paragon she thinks he is. Alafair soon uncovers such a tangle of lies, misdirection, and deceit that she begins to think that the whole town has been downright hornswoggled!
Land of Shadows (Medieval Mysteries #12)
by Priscilla RoyalWhen zookeeper Theodora "Teddy" Bentley fishes the body of Koala Kate out of Gunn Landing Harbor, she discovers that her fellow zookeeper didn't drown; she was strangled. The clues to Kate's killer implicate other animal keepers at Gunn Zoo, including Outback Bill, marsupial keeper and Kate's Aussie ex-boyfriend; and Robin Chase, the big cat keeper who's got it in for Teddy. Also displaying suspicious behavior are several "liveaboarders" at the harbor; Speaks-To-Souls, a shady "animal psychic;" and even Caro, Teddy's much-married, ex-beauty queen mother.But murderers aren't all Teddy has to worry about. Her embezzling father is still on the run from the Feds, and the motor on her houseboat is failing. To pay for the repairs, Teddy agrees to appear on a weekly live television broadcast featuring misbehaving animals that range from a cuddly koala to a panicky wallaby - and all hell breaks loose in the TV studio. All the while, the killer is narrowing in on Teddy....
Nantucket Five-Spot: A Henry Kennis Mystery (Henry Kennis Nantucket Mysteries #2)
by Steven Axelrod"Fans of traditional mysteries will welcome Axelrod's entertaining fifth outing for Nantucket police chief Henry Kennis…That Henry believes in an 'old school low-tech version of police work' allows the reader to readily follow the clues." —Publishers WeeklyThe fifth Henry Kennis mystery takes us into the closed, gossip-riddled, back-stabbing world of Nantucket's community theater.Horst Refn, the widely disliked and resented Artistic Director of the Nantucket Theater Lab, has been found stuffed into the meat freezer in his basement. Most of the actors, all the technical crew, and quite a few of the Theater Lab Board members, whom Refn was scamming and blackmailing, are suspects in his murder. The island's Police Chief Henry Kennis has to pick his way through a social minefield as he searches for the killer.At the same time, daughter's new boyfriend, football star Hector Cruz, has been accused of sexting her. Carrie knows the offending pictures didn't come from him, and Henry has to prove it before the boy gets suspended, which means probing into the family secrets of Hector's father, a firebrand agitprop playwright, who happens to be a prime suspect in Refn's murder.Every story is a fiction, every identity proves false, and every statement a lie. The counterfeit bills found at the scene of the crime are the most obvious symbol of the deceptions and distractions that obscure the investigation. The truth lies buried in the past, in Refn's earlier crimes and the victims who came to Nantucket seeking revenge.When the culprit has been revealed, the last masks torn off, and final murder foiled—live, on stage, during the opening night of Who Dun It, the eerily prescient opening drama of the Theater Lab Season—Jane says to Henry, "Is everything counterfeit?" He smiles. "Almost."
Judas: The Gospel of Betrayal (Jerusalem Mysteries)
by Frederick RamsayKent Trowbridge, bankable Hollywood bad boy actor, played late-night bumper car in his shiny new Ferrari, and now he's going to do county time. Enter Trans/Oxana's Loss Prevention specialist Jay Davidovich.Davidovich, a skilled veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, is a dangerous man. He's also a company man, following the Trans/Oxana guidelines of loss prevention "by any legal means."Davidovich starts by hiring a jail coach Katrina Thompson to help trouble magnet Trowbridge survive incarceration and minimize the interruption to the movie project in progress. But Katrina arrives with some baggage in tow. Everyone falls for her adorable toddler. No one falls for Stan Chaladian, a ruthless hustler from ex-Marine Katrina's unorthodox past. Can Jay keep Katrina and Trowbridge from costing the company?
Capital Crimes: London Mysteries (British Library Crime Classics #0)
by Editor Martin EdwardsMystery crime fiction written in the Golden Age of MurderCapital Crimes is an eclectic collection of London-based crime stories, blending the familiar with the unexpected in a way that reflects the personality of the city. Alongside classics by Margery Allingham, Anthony Berkeley and Thomas Burke are excellent and unusual stories by authors who are far less well known. The stories give a flavour of how writers have tackled crime in London over the span of more than half a century. Their contributions range from an early serial-killer thriller set on the London Underground and horrific vignettes to cerebral whodunits. What they have in common is an atmospheric London setting, and enduring value as entertainment.Each story is introduced by the editor, Martin Edwards, who sheds light on the authors' lives and the background to their writing.
Broken Heartland: A Mad Dog And Englishman Mystery (Mad Dog & Englishman Series #4)
by J. M. HayesSleepy Benteen County, Kansas, turns frantic on election day. Sheriff English, better known as Englishman, faces his toughest re-election challenge yet. The radical religious right is out to unseat him, their candidate an Iraq war hero. But Englishman's only available deputy isn't winning him votes. That very morning, while pursuing a vehicle, the hurried deputy rammed a school bus carrying the Benteen County teen choir.Englishman's brother, Mad Dog, a born-again Cheyenne, rushes back from a quest to the Black Hills. He has had a premonition that the sheriff is in serious danger. Meanwhile, the sheriff's daughters, attending separate colleges, wake with similar fears, cut classes, and hurry home to keep their father safe.The sheriff believes the girls are the ones in need of protection as election day grows ever wilder. A student smuggles a gun into the school and begins shooting and taking hostages. A private army has seized a nearby farm and holds citizens, including Mad Dog, against their will. And, when he finds some spare time, Englishman needs to clear up one little thing about his deputy's accident: Benteen County doesn't have a teen choir. All this by sundown. It's enough to make a sheriff wonder why he wants to serve another term.
Dry Heat (David Mapstone Mysteries #4)
by Jon TaltonThe past is never past on the mean streets of Phoenix, especially when the mercury hits a hundred and it's only April. Half a century after the unsolved murder of an FBI agent, the missing badge is found on the body of a dead transient. The case seems a perfect fit for David Mapstone, history professor turned Maricopa County deputy sheriff. That is, if he can get past a forced partnership with rival cold-case expert Sgt. Kate Vare and the FBI's strange stonewalling about the details of the agent's killing.To complicate matters, there are the crimes making history today, like the arrest of Russian mafia members in a multimillion-dollar fraud case. David's wife, Lindsey, star of the sheriff's Cybercrimes Bureau, was on the task force that busted the case wide open. But her triumph is short-lived when a hit in Scottsdale leaves three task-force members dead. Lindsey's life in danger, Sheriff Peralta stashes Lindsey and David in a safe house. That doesn't get the good "History Shamus" off the hook, though, as Sheriff Peralta inexplicably demands that David solve the cold caseThe trail will take Mapstone to the most forlorn parts of Phoenix, as well as to San Francisco and picturesque southern Arizona, as he slowly uncovers the bloody secrets surrounding the mysterious FBI badge. He's got the brains and the leads. Now all he and Lindsey have to do is live long enough to bring justice to a fifty-year-old crime.
Impulse
by Frederick RamsayAutumn in Michigan's Upper Peninsula means hunting season, and the fall of 1950 finds most everyone in St. Adele township hunting for something—deer, grouse, uranium; love, redemption, escape; a story, a husband, a murderer...When the son of summer residents at the exclusive Shawanok Club is found dead after an uproarious dance at the town hall, the sheriff is flummoxed, and everyone is appalled: Bambi was found in the loft over the tool shed, bound, gagged, and inexpertly scalped. Who better to search for the killer than St. Adele's reluctant constable, John McIntire?The trail he must follow branches off like the spokes of a wheel, in multiple directions, leading to multiple dead ends. The only common link seems to be the boy's parents: a father who is mysteriously unavailable, a mother on a mission to see her son's killer dead, who remains sequestered in her rented mansion, baking cream pies and playing the piano. Her imported private eye seems more interested in dallying with McIntire's exotic Aunt Siobhan, who's just turned up on his doorstep some 25 years after she ran off with a carnival worker as a teen. And Bambi's mentor on a summer's search for uranium, a hot prospect in Flambeau County, is more conversant with archaeological artifacts than Geiger counters.McIntire's investigation takes him from the haunts of the affluent visitors, to the backwoods camp of a Rube Goldberg hermit, and finally to an abandoned gold mine where he learns what really happened that summer's night....
The Sanctity of Hate (Medieval Mysteries #9)
by Priscilla Royal"The plotting and the mechanics of the solution are in the best traditions of the classic British mystery...Try not to miss this one." —New York TimesLife in a dismal bureaucratic cul-de-sac is not what Robert Amiss expects when the British civil service lends him for a year to the British Conservation Corporation. In fact, he finds himself condemned to a non-job in a backwater, managing disgruntled and demoralized timeservers who deeply resent him. Morale is not improved by the arrival of Melissa, a radical feminist lesbian separatist. Only Amiss's sense of humour and the joys of visiting Rachel, his new love in Paris, keep him sane.The malice, envy and anger that burgeons among the filing cabinets is first expressed in pettiness and then in unpleasant practical jokes. Then it escalates and finally culminates in callous murder by means of boxes of poisoned chocolates sent to the bureaucrats' wives.With the help of Ellis Pooley, a young detective obsessed with fictional sleuths, Amiss and his friend, Superintendent Milton, search for motives in an office where marital discord and broken dreams might drive anyone to murder.
An Easy Thing: A Héctor Belascoarán Shayne Detective Novel (Hector Belascoaran Shayne Detective Novels #0)
by Paco Ignacio Taibo IISet amidst the political turbulence and social unrest of contemporary Mexico City, An Easy Thing introduces English-speaking readers to Taibo's human and world-weary protagonist, independent detective Hector Belascoaran Shayne. In this debut outing, our hero, who, incidentally, possesses an insatiable appetite for Coca Cola and cigarettes, tackles three cases simultaneously: a killing in a corrupt factory; the deadly threats against a former porn starlet's teenage daughter; and, strangely, the search for Emiliano Zapata, folk hero and leader of the Mexican Revolution, rumored to be alive and hiding out in a cave outside Mexico City.Combining black comedy, social history and a touch of surrealism, Paco Taibo's wonderfully idiosyncratic detective novels are admired the world over and are particularly popular in Europe and in the Spanish-speaking world.
Speak Now (Charley Fairfax Mysteries #1)
by Margaret Dumas"Comic cozy meets crazed spy thriller in this debut novel short-listed for Britain's 2003 Crime Writer's Association Debut Dagger award."—BooklistCharley Van Leeuwen can tell by a man's kiss whether he's been drinking Taittinger or Veuve Clicquot. Not that she kisses many men, a fact her friends deplore. So imagine their surprise when she came home to San Francisco with a new husband. Jack Fairfax is the definition of tall, dark, and handsome. But is he a mild-mannered meteorologist as he claims?Sometime between finding a dead body in her bathtub, tagging along on a ransom drop, and getting rescued by her husband in a hail of bullets, Charley begins to suspect there's more to Jack's past than he's willing—or able—to admit.So, here's Charley, used to her money as a cushion, forced to protect her family and friends, and rushed to rescue her nonprofit repertory theater from artistic and financial ruin. If that means dealing with kidnappings, murders, bitter ex-boyfriends, out-of-control relatives, and vicious former spies—all while staging a play—well, nobody ever said marriage would be easy....